Plaza de las Comendadoras: The Knights' Nuns
Why is it significant?
Take a seat on a bench in this little square and look at the church along one side, a sober brick and stone front with a dome rising behind it. Pigeons, plane trees, children on scooters, café tables. It is one of the calmest corners in the centre of Madrid.
Key Facts
| Place | Plaza de las Comendadoras: The Knights' Nuns |
|---|---|
| Address | Plaza de las Comendadoras 10, 28015 Madrid, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 40.42740, -3.70870 |
| Part of Walk | Dukes, Monks and an Egyptian Temple: Madrid's Conde Duque to Templo de Debod |
| Generated | Generated |
Take a seat on a bench in this little square and look at the church along one side, a sober brick and stone front with a dome rising behind it. Pigeons, plane trees, children on scooters, café tables. It is one of the calmest corners in the centre of Madrid.
The church belongs to the Comendadoras de Santiago, and the name holds a surprise. The Order of Santiago was a military order of knights, founded in the twelfth century to fight in the wars against the Moors, with the red sword-shaped cross of Saint James as its badge. It also had women members: comendadoras, nuns of the order, and for centuries they had to prove noble lineage to be admitted.
This convent was founded in the middle of the seventeenth century, and the church was built in the following decades by the architects Manuel and José del Olmo. Inside, over the high altar, hangs a great painting by Luca Giordano, the fast-working Neapolitan master, showing Saint James on horseback in battle. Look for the red cross of Santiago carved on the outside walls too: the knights signed everything they owned.
The nuns are still here, behind those walls, living in an enclosed community. It is a strange thought: on one side of the square, people drink coffee and argue about football; on the other, a way of life has continued, quietly, through wars, revolutions and the arrival of the internet.
Madrid has dozens of these convent squares, but most visitors never find them because they sit on no main road. That is the joy of this neighbourhood: you turn a corner and the century changes. Leave the square on its eastern side and walk to Calle de San Bernardo. Look out for a baroque church tower that seems to be waiting for a twin that never came.